Oak Tree Dairy Property Public Hearing Scheduled For June 17

On June 17, 2014 there will be public hearing to determine the fate of the Oak Tree Dairy property on Elwood Road in East Northport. It is hard to imagine that any new information will be brought to the table. The battle has been going on since 2012 when it was first announced that Engel Burman was interested in purchasing the property and asking for a significant zoning change.

Engel Burman is asking for a change from R-40 Residence District to R-RM Retirement Community District on the 37 acre property. The original plan was submitted in March 2012 and it included 444 units. The developer submitted an amended application to the town for 360 homes which is what is currently on the table. In order for the development to be built, the town would have to make a zone change from 1-acre residence to retirement community district. The latter allows for 14.5 homes per acre.

The process has been long and hard for both sides. Unfortunately, this is typical in the town of Huntington under the direction of Supervisor Petrone. Builders with deep pockets are made to jump through hoops and do a lot of wining and dining hoping to seek out community members who will support their project.
Residents who oppose high density development are demonized. Typically, they are accused of spreading misinformation, of being haters, fear mongers and racists. In reality, they are merely trying to preserve their quality of life and protect their greatest asset.

Local home owners and school district officials are made to become detectives to uncover the real facts and the “devil in the details” of many proposed projects. Many hours are spent by taxpaying residents to attend meetings, get educated on the facts and to try to educate others. They spend a great deal of time trying to bring the facts to town officials. Our elected officials should be educating the public, not the other way around.

The battle was put on hold for awhile by Supervisor Petrone last October when he asked the developer to take his request off the table. Many viewed this as a shrewd campaign move while he and councilman Cuthbertson were seeking re-election. Not surprisingly, things began to move forward just after the two were re-elected.
Those of us who have been down this road before knew the delay would be short lived and things would move forward after Election Day. Some Elwood residents were blindsided as they thought there would be more time to work out the details and have some of the density concerns addressed.

Last month, the town board voted to hold the June 17 public hearing. The only no vote was Councilman Cook. He said he would like the builder to address more of the concerns and lower the density before a public hearing takes place.

It’s pretty easy to predict what the hearing will be like. Unfortunately, it has become an all too familiar scene in our township and across much of Long Island. Residents desperately trying to hold onto their quality of life will come out and try to plead their case to 5 council people. They will be up against a builder with deep pockets who will fund a campaign that gives the appearance that there are as many people for the project as against it.

Typically, most of the opposition to high density projects are local residents who will be directly affected by the project and often forced to pay for it in some way. The support side is typically made of people who work for the builder, or some other entity that will benefit monetarily from the project and special interest groups that live somewhere other than the immediate area.

The Objections:

The Elwood School District BOE and PTA have been actively opposing the project. What they oppose is “an intensity of use that requires a substantial zoning change that would significantly affect student safety and transportation”. The proposed development abuts their high school and middle school campus, which accommodate more than 1,400 children and dozens of staff members each school day. They are also concerned about the potential long-term threat of overcrowding their schools, because the covenants of a restricted community cannot, by law, be held in perpetuity.

For the most part, it all comes down to the density of the project. We didn’t hear anyone say they have anything against seniors or condo style development.

People are concerned that it doesn’t fit in with the character of the surrounding community.

A major concern is about increased traffic on the already congested Elwood road.

The current zoning is single-family one acre zoning, which would allow for approximately 37 units. The proposal is currently asking for 360 units. This is always a point of contention. If zoning laws are often changed then a buyer can never be sure of what could potentially be built next to them.

The traffic study was paid for by the developer and therefore some feel it lacks objectivity.

There are concerns that the community cannot handle the increased population that may result from 360 new housing units.

There is concern that increasing the senior population will have a negative impact on school budget votes.

Some feel the tax benefit suggested by the developer is based on unrealistic selling prices.

This concern is from the Greater Huntington Civic Groups website. “In a similar project in Dix Hills, “empty nesters” from Dix Hills moved to the new senior housing and sold their homes to young families. The influx of young families into the homes vacated by seniors overwhelmed the Dix Hills School District and quickly cancelled out the anticipated savings.  If 200 units are purchased by current Elwood residents (the developer’s own projection), the families who replace them in their current homes would add hundreds of children to the district rolls.  The new tax revenue will be inadequate to fund the same quality of education. Instead of a slower increase in taxes resulting from this project, there actually may be a higher increase in taxes to support the increase of school aged children.”

Although the builder is offering to covenants banning children, some residents are concerned that any covenants can be over turned after the project is built.

In the case of Avalon Bay Huntington Station, residents were concerned about more rentals being added to the area.  As a compromise, for sale units were added to the plan.  Shortly after the project was approved, the for sale units were removed from the plan.

The Pros 

The pros are simple. The builder and the land owners want to make money and as much of it as they possibly can. There is nothing wrong with this. The environment for builders and developers on long Island is a hostile one. The cost of doing business to get a project to fruition is high. This is a testament to the poor leadership in our elected officials.

Petrone and the majority on the Town Board have helped to create this hostile environment. Builders who want to break ground in most cases need to “defeat” the local community before they can move forward. This involves all kinds of expenses. It would be a great benefit to all sides if we had leadership that demanded above board builders and a transparent process. Town Board members should demand real traffic studies and realistic projections of the number of school aged kids that a project could potentially bring. If builders could save on some of the “cost of doing business” shenanigans they may actually be able to live with lower density and still make reasonable profits.